


The Consequences of Choices

by Chaoswolf12



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: AU from issue 53 of MTMTE and on, Canon-Typical Violence, Medical issues, Other, Relationship Problems, Sexual Interfacing, Spoilers for MTMTE #53 and on, fix-it fic of sorts, mnemmosurgery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-09 12:02:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11104185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chaoswolf12/pseuds/Chaoswolf12
Summary: What would happen if Chromedome succeeded in reviving Dominus Ambus? Change that one little fact and it makes a huge difference to the events that follow.This is all the what-ifs and the speculations and the emotional upheaval we wanted.(There will most likely be interfacing and smut, eventually. Rating and tags will change/be added if needed.)Spoiilers for MTMTE #53 and on.





	The Consequences of Choices

\--=CD&RW=--

 

Rewind couldn't take his optics off of Chromedome, his conjunx who had his mnemosurgery needles deep in the helm of the battered and offline form on the med-table. His stubborn conjux, who was dying, spark going out to bring back the long-lost Dominus Ambus, who had somehow become the terrifying Pet of the DJD... and was Rewind's former conjunx endura.

His conjux who was ignoring his pleas to disengage because to pull out now would kill the mech on the table. “You can have him instead of me!” Chromedome insisted though his voice was pained. All Rewind could think was _But I don't want him. Not like this!_ He cast about, frantic to find some plea or bit of logic, or _something_ that would make Chromedome stop. He couldn't watch him die, not again...!

Drift stood just to the side of the table, beside Ratchet, their faces reflecting the panic and grief in Rewind's spark as they watched the readout on the scanner Ratchet held. But Rewind's gaze snagged on the hilt of the sword hanging from Drift's hip.

Lunging, Rewind pulled the sword from it's scabbard and turned, arms high to bring the blade down on Chromedome's arm. But before he could finish the stroke, Drift caught his wrists, stopping him. “Rewind! What- !” Drift exclaimed, trying to control the frantic mech and keep the sword from hurting anyone.

“No! No! Let me go, I have to stop him! _Domey_!” Rewind shrieked, pulling with all his strength.

Drift yelped as he was jerked off balance for a moment, but managed to keep his grip on the mini-bot. Whatever words he might have said to try and calm Rewind went unsaid as Ratchet cursed and pushed past both of them.

Rewind keened a high wounded sound as Chromedome collapsed, needles retracting and visor going dark. He watched as his conjunx slid limply off the table he had been half laying on and fell into Ratchet's arms. Ratchet's cursing rose in volume as he rushed Chromedome to an adjacent berth and immediately began hooking him up to spark support. Gray was inching across that beloved frame and Rewind's spark stuttered in his chest. Dropping the sword, he barely noticed Drift releasing his arms as he ran to Chromedome's berthside. He reached out and grasped Chromedome's hand, holding it close, though his visor was locked on to the fading colors on his conjux's chest.

“Ratchet? Ratchet, can you- will he be alright?” Rewind choked out desperately, voice nearly lost in static. When several moments passed with no answer, he tore his sight off of Chromedome to focus on the medic. “Ratchet?” he whispered, fearfully.

“I don't know kid,” Ratchet growled softly, hands busy connecting various wires and tubes. His face was grim, and his optics never left the glyphs on the spark monitor.

A sob slipped out, as Rewind turned his sight back to Chromedome and saw that the gray had seeped further. It covered most of the plating on the once white and yellow extremities, and only the bright orange and yellows on Chromedome's chestplate and helm remained. Bringing the hand he held up to his faceplate, Rewind nearly keened at the unnatural coolness of the grayed metal. “Why didn't you stop when I told you to? It wasn't your choice to make, Domey!” Rewind cried with another sob, leaning closer to his beloved, trying not to see the creeping gray. “And I chose you,” he whispered, resting his forehead against Chromedome's.

A low moan and some scraping scuffling noises came from behind him, but Rewind ignored it. All he cared about was Chromedome, even when Drift let out a soft curse and called over. “Uh, Ratchet, I think we need some help over here.”

“It'll have to wait,” Ratchet snapped back.

Another moan, and more swearing from Drift. More scuffling and some low soothing words from Drift. The scuffling grew louder, along with a whine that gradually became louder and louder. “Whoa, easy, everything's going to be alright. Just stay- whoa! - Just stay calm!” Drift said just as there was a loud yelp and a crash. “Hey, no, just lay down you're going to AAAHH!” Drift cried out, followed by more rattling clangs and loud growling. A short pause followed then he bellowed “Rodimus, get your aft in here!”

A few moments later Rodimus' voice preceded him into the room. “Drift? What do you need? I didn't think Rewind would be happy to see me in here, and we're a little busy with battle prep- oh Primus!” Rodimus exclaimed as he came back into the room. “What the frag happened?!”

“Just help get him off me,” Drift growled out.

Rewind's natural curiosity finally nudged through his worry about Chromedome to let him look away from Ratchet's work, and he half turned to see what was going on behind him. His in-vented sharply when he saw Drift on the floor pinning a struggling Dominus down. Despite his greater mass, it looked like it was quite difficult to keep the beastmech pinned. Rodimus crouched next to them helping to pry the beastmech's jaws off Drift's forearm. Energon leaked from between the clamped jaws, sharp fangs having managed to puncture Drift's armor. Snarling growls erupted every time Drift shifted or Rodimus moved to get a better grip.

“Slag it mech, let go! We're trying to help you, but it's hard to be nice to you when you're eating my friend's arm!” Rodimus grunted as he yanked at the strong jaws again.

Rewind made a choked noise, and gave a short laugh. It sounded somewhere between hysterical and bitter, but it got all three of the grappling mechs' attentions. They looked over at him and Rewind laughed again. “If you think that's him eating Drift then you obviously haven't seen-!” he said, then abruptly cut off, and shook his head. He looked away, voice pained and quiet when he resumed speaking. It was obvious he was talking more to himself than them- reliving memories. “He actually ate Tripodeca's leg, crunched it down like a ruststick. But the worst was when his master gave him Jackpot's spark chamber. The Pet chewed on that like it was a slagging energon taffy. Jackpot's spark was still lit, and all the wires still connected to his frame, so he could feel it. He couldn't move but he could scream. Poor Jackpot lasted until one of the creature's fangs pierced his crytstal. When his spark gave out the Pet spit the spark chamber out like it had lost all it's flavor.”

A high pitched whimper jerked Rewind back to the present, and he flinched when he saw the Pet looking at him, energon dripping from it's mouth. The teeth, energon, and memories had him cringing away, back pressed to the berth behind him and hand tightening on Domey's. The Pet saw the cringe and whined, head lowering and optics wide and sad. No, no, that wasn't the Pet, it was Dominus Ambus. Rewind stopped cowering as he reminded himself of that fact again. It was Dominus looking up at him from the floor, Drift and Rodimus still holding on to him warily, even though he was no longer biting Drift. Dominus hunched down further, audials pinned back, and whimpered again. Drift and Rodimus looked at each other, then cautiously let go of the spiky green mech.

A curse from Ratchet and the sounds of monitor alarms going off made Rewind whirl back around, everything else in the room forgotten as his visor locked on to Chromedome. “No, Domey!” Rewind cried out, when he saw how gray he was. “Don't you leave me!”

Ratchet pried open Chromedome's chestplates, swearing all the while, and quickly hooked up the leads for a spark jump. Energy crackled over Chromedome's frame as the medic activated the jumpers. Chromedome's spark which had been shrunk down to a pinprick of light, flared and grew, but then flickered and went small again. Ratchet threw another pulse of energy at it, and again it flared then shrank. A third pulse, and it flared, but not as brightly. Optics narrowed, Ratchet waited for it to shrink again, and it did, though not as much as before. They waited and watched, but even after several minutes passed it didn't shrink any more. Picking up the scanner, Ratchet examined the readings before sighing.

“He's mostly stable now, but still incredibly weak. There's nothing more I can do at the moment,” Ratchet said, closing up Chromedome's chestplates. The yellows and reds and whites were coming back to Chromedom'es plating, though it was still faded looking. “Any more jumps, and we run the risk of overwhelming and snuffing out his spark. It's up to him now. All we can do is wait and make sure he stays comfortable and quiet.”

“But he'll be alright?” Rewind asked, anxious hope plain in his voice.

“I can't say for sure, Rewind,” Ratchet said with a sigh, and rubbed his hand over his helm. “If, and this is a big _if_ , his spark manages to gain strength and he wakes up, then he should be alright. If he doesn't wake up on his own, then I'll have to check to make sure this hasn't damaged his processor and neural connections. But either way, he can never inject again. I mean _never_ Rewind. Next time he tries, he'll die, no 'maybes' about it. This has damaged his spark, on top of the long term damage injecting does to the brain module. If he wakes up, I'll recommend to him that he have his needles removed to lessen the temptation of 'just one more'. Because that one more will kill him.”

Nodding, Rewind pressed the side of his helm to the hand which he had never let go. The white coloring and the warmth had come back to it, and Rewind couldn't help but take hope and comfort from that. Chromedome _would_ get better and wake up, he'd make sure of it.

A tentative tap against his hip made Rewind startle and look down. Dominus stood there, hunched and shivering, optics flashing as he looked up before his gaze darted away. Drift stood just behind him, an uncertain look on his face. “Sorry, Rewind, I couldn't get him to stay over there, and since he's being calm, well...” the swordmech shrugged, and gestured down at Dominus.

Dominus whined and slowly leaned against Rewind, though he kept his head down and didn't look up at Rewind. Their plating chimed lightly as Dominus shuddered again. Rewind looked up at Drift. “It's alright, I suppose,” he said, quietly, and went back to watching Chromedome's color slowly return and listening to the steady reassuring sounds of the monitors.

Ratchet came around the berth and looked down at Dominus. “Hmph, you shouldn't even be up yet.” He sighed then knelt and started scanning the green mech. “Okay, Dominus, is it? As you can see, we're Autobots. Your voice box has been removed and replaced with a vocal synthesizer that only lets you make growls and other mechanimal noises. So just nod if you understand me.” He waited a moment until Dominus nodded. “Alright. Well, I'm afraid you can't transform yet either, because your t-cog has been removed. That will be easy enough to replace, but your voice will be harder. In the meantime, I can reconnect and activate your comms so you can talk to us that way. Will you allow me to do that?”

Dominus raised his head and looked at Ratchet for a long moment before nodding.

“Good. If you can manage it, I'd like you to hop back up on that table there, so I can access your comm systems,” Ratchet said, pointing at the berth Dominus had woken up on. Dominus glanced up at Rewind, but nodded again, and slowly walked over to the requested berth. He hopped up, and then watched Ratchet warily. Ratchet followed him over, then patted the berth-top. “Alright, lay down on your ventral plates and put your nose between your front legs so I can access the panel I need.”

Dominus did as asked, though his optics kept glancing about nervously and his plating would flare then sleek down. Ratchet, popped open the panel he needed on the back of Dominus' helm, behind and under his large audial. A few quick welds and a couple new wires attached and Dominus' comm systems was reactivated. He closed everything back up and stepped away.

“There we go. Public comm channel is LL83.2017.53xHRP. I'll give it a couple of pings, and you ping back as soon as you locate it,” Ratchet instructed, sending out a couple of pings and nodding in satisfaction when they were quickly answered. “Seems to be working. I'll leave acquiring private comm channels up to you. And I'm sure you know that unless you want the entire crew to hear what you're saying you should stick to short range comms when speaking.” The medic gave a grunt of approval when Dominus nodded again.

Rodimus made an 'ahem' sound, catching their attentions. “Glad to know that you can talk now,” he said with a wry grin at Dominus, as he stepped closer. “It's great and all, but would you happen to know where the DJD landed their ship? It might be our only way off this weirdo planet, and we were hoping you could get us to it. That's kinda how we ended up finding out that you weren't, well, _just_ the Pet if you know what I mean.” Rodimus waved a yellow hand in Dominus' direction.

::I'm afraid I _don't_ know what you mean,:: came a deep, slightly husky voice over the comms.

They all startled slightly at the sound of the unknown voice. Rewind's visor brightened at the hint of that once-familiar voice, but he remained silent. It was Rodimus who answered. “Uh, well, come to find out you were an Autobot spy who managed to infiltrate the DJD, but you got caught. And, well, apparently you have a beastmode so they turned you into the Pet. When we caught you, we just wanted information- didn't realize we were saving a fellow Autobot,” the captain finished explaining with a shrug. He winced a little when Rewind made an angry noise.

Angry blue visor met wary blue optics and Rewind nearly snarled. “You don't care that he's an Autobot. If you really cared about more than getting off this planet you wouldn't have pushed Domey into injecting. He almost _died_ because of you! He might _still_ die!” Rewind yelled, before turning away and bowing his head. Anger and fear was making his hands shake, and he braced them on the berth. “You knew he shouldn't inject, that he hadn't recovered from the _last_ time you asked him to do it.”

Several tense moments passed. The silence was broken by their comms. ::I... know that I was an Autobot. And I remember my mission. My time as- as _the Pet_ is somewhat hazy at the moment. I'm afraid I am not sure if I can tell you where the Peaceful Tyranny is with any accuracy. I could tell you what the place looked and smelled like, and I could probably _lead_ you there, but I was in no condition to remember or recognize coordinates it seems,:: Dominus said. His audials pinned back, and his optics dimmed. ::To be frank, I- I'm not sure I _want_ to remember more. There's screams, and the taste and smell of _so much_ energon, and Mast-:: A whine built in Dominus' throat and his comm voice cut off. He sank down on to the berth and curled up into a ball, helm hiding under his forelegs and tail. Distressed keening started to come from the overwhelmed mech.

Ratchet tsked and shooed Rodimus away. He scanned Dominus again, then lightly patted the back plates of the curled up ball of green mech. “Alright, let him calm down a bit. His mind's just been through a total reset, so why don't you go get everyone organized, Rodimus, and come back after he's had a little bit of time to readjust. You can find out where the DJD stashed their ship then.”

“Alright,” Rodimus said, somewhat reluctantly. “I guess I should go check up on Brainstorm and see what he and Mags have been up to.” His optics suddenly brightened. “Oh! Wait until I tell him!” He dashed for the door then paused. “Drift, you coming?”

Drift looked at Ratchet, but the medic just waved his hand in a shooing motion. “Go on kid, keep an optic on him.” Drift nodded and followed a bouncy Rodimus out of the medbay.

Heaving a sigh through his vent- exasperation or fondness it was hard to tell- Ratchet turned back to his patients. Dominus Ambus was still shaking and keening softly, curled up and miserable, but the scanner showed his systems and numbers were all within normal levels. A bit on the high side and stressed out, but that was to be expected. Still, over all Dominus was fine- the DJD had kept him in better condition than Ratchet had been expecting. A little rest and quiet, maybe some counseling, and Dominus Ambus would be fine.

Chromedome on the other hand... Ratchet wasn't as optimistic. If Chromedome pulled through- and that was a big IF at the moment- he would have a long recovery ahead. There was nothing more that the medic could do, but he'd not been as blunt as maybe he should have been when he told Rewind how much damage Chromedome had done to himself with this stunt. It was a miracle that the spark jump had even worked. Jumping a spark was a temporary measure- in the end, the spark itself had to be strong enough to support itself and the frame it resided in. Ratchet wasn't happy with how small and weak Chromedome's spark had restabilized. He wasn't in eminent danger at the moment, but if it didn't grow or strengthen any more then Chromedome would eventually be in trouble. A permanent frame transfer to a smaller form or staying on spark support for the rest of his life kind of trouble. And that was just the spark problems, that didn't go into the processor and other system damage that Chromedome had now.

Right now, they could only keep him quiet, calm, and safe, and hope his spark didn't weaken again. Because Chromedome wouldn't survive another spark jump. And with the problems brewing outside, _quiet,calm, and safe_ were all things that were unlikely to remain available.

 

\---=CD&RW=---

 


End file.
